Best Bike Rides Philadelphia

My new book "Best Bike Rides Philadelphia" is finally in print. I got the first copies from my publisher this week. I'm really happy the way it came out. Writing a book takes a lot of work. My co-author and I spent about a year doing the rides, write ups and maps for the book and then spent another few months helping the publisher clean it up and put it all together. I'm not sure when it will appear in stores but I'm guessing it will be some time in August as that's when Amazon will have it available.

Seeing the final book and being able to show people some cool places to ride is why I enjoy writing these books. I also end up meeting a lot of other bike riders and have fun sharing stories with them. Being a bike rider is sort of like being in a fraternity because we all share a lot of the same experiences. While doing this book I met a number of people from the Bicycle Club of Philadelphia (BCP) who helped me a lot with finding some good rides in and around Philly. BCP is a great club and if you live near the Philly you should join them for some rides.

This Saturday I rode with the Linda who is the president of the BCP. She wanted to do a ride to Belmar and asked for my help with the route.  It was nice seeing Linda again since I had not talked to her in a while. I was also able to give her a copy of the new book as a way to thank her and BCP for all their help.

The ride to Belmar started off pretty good and we made it to Farmingdale and through Seagirt with out a problem. The weather forecast had a chance of thunderstorms for late afternoon but as we headed up Ocean Ave the sky opened up and it went from a lite shower to torrential down pour it about a mile. We took refuge under the over hang of the stores by 16th street. We hoped the storm would pass quickly but it just keep raining and then the thunder and lighting started. One of the people in the group had a problem with their pedal so they headed to a bike store on 15th street. We joined him a little later and continued to wait out the storm. With the continued heavy rain and lighting we really could not continue the ride.

After we looked at the radar we saw that the storm would pass in about a half hour but that would be followed by another big storm. I decide at that point to call my wife and to be picked up. This was not an easy decision but Herb and I felt it was too dangerous to continue. If we had been in the pine barrens with light traffic we might have tried to continue but the combination of lighting, heavy rain and traffic around Belmar made riding risky.

When the rain did let up Linda and a couple of others decided not to wait for the pick up and rode off. They did make it back safely but got a little wet along the way. Although I now owe my wife big time for the pick up I think it was the right choice.

A Cool Day in July

When I schedule rides for July I always worry about hot weather. A couple of weeks ago I had to cut my Pinelands metric 20 miles short because it was so hot.This has been one of the hottest summers on record so when I had a my hilly Schooley's Mountain ride in the book for mid Judy I was concerned that it might turn into a death march. Luckily this particular day in July will probably end up being the coolest day of the summer. There was a good chance of showers on the morning of the ride but the rain missed us and as the storm front when past it brought a lot of cool air with it. In fact it was so cool I thought I might need arm warmers.

A few years ago Laura and I had done some exploring around Califon and found a lot of nice roads. It is a hilly but very scenic area to ride. I didn't get up this area last year because of the rides I had to do for the Philly book so I really wanted to get back here this year. The route we took was a modified version of my Middle Valley Ride which I had only done by myself.  This route starts out easy from Raritan Valley College and takes us slowly up hill and down into the Raritan Valley. The climbs at the start of the ride aren't too bad and you could not have asked for better weather.

Every time I do a ride up in this area with a group it never goes completely smooth. This area was where Lynne fell and broke her elbow, Mike M broke his rear derailleur cable turning his bike into a single speed, and there were other more minor problems. Today was no different. At about 10 miles into the ride Bob had a flat on his front tire. He fixed it then had another flat about 2 miles later. Both of us really took a good look at the rim and tire and could not see any flaw that would have caused the flat.

Bob decided to go back to the start and not to continue on with us. Having two flats so close together makes you lose confidence in your equipment. It may have just been a total fluke but when these types of things happen the best thing to do is to get back home as soon as you can so you can thoroughly check out the bike and try and find the cause of the problem. Bob also didn't want to slow down the rest of the group which I appreciated. I felt bad about him having to go back on his own but he came well prepared and still had two spare tubes left. When I got back to my car there was a note on the windshield that said he made it back with out any other problems.

After leaving Bob the rest of us when on to Schooley's mountain. The toughest climb is on Slicker road. It starts out slow with a few rollers but the last half mile gets steep and then when you turn off on to Pleasantville the climb continues just a little longer just as steep.

From there we rolled along the ridge to our rest stop which is a nice old general store/post office. Then after a quick stop at a park for a bathroom break we headed down hill. The last part of the downhill is really steep with a hairpin turn that is scary and fun at the same time. Most of us had the death grip on our breaks for the last park of the hill so when we all got to the bottom our rims were smokin hot.

For every good downhill there are at least 3 climb to make up for it and we did as we headed up Beacon, Beavers and Farmersville. These hills weren't as bad as the ones on my Jockey Hollow ride so although there was some grumbling there wasn't much foul language or epic songs being sung. The pay off was going down Fox Farm. This is becoming one of my favorite downhills because it is a long mostly gentle downhill with an occasional killer view off the left. This hill is also towards the end of the ride so when you get to the bottom there is mostly flat roads ahead.

This ride confirmed again how nice this area is to ride and definitely worth the trip. As long as you are ready for the hills there is a lot to like here. Hopefully I can back here again later in the year.

Pimping My Ride

Although I like to keep my bike well maintained I don't really care how it or I look. Some people.will spurge for a special paint job or add some accessories to decorate their bike. My main bike is polished titanium and after 10 years still looks OK except for pealing on some of the decals. The one small flashy feature on the bike has been the red value caps. The person who built the bike for me added them for character and I have always liked them.

Even though I have changed many tires over the years I have never lost the red value caps which is pretty amazing. However after 10 years they are were pretty dirty and beat up. After a quick web search I found Purely Custom which among other things makes custom value caps. The new value caps I ordered are anodized aluminum and much better than the old plastic ones that I had. They really won't make my bike look any better but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to put the normal black plastic value caps on my bike.